College basketball viewers’ guide: Kansas-Houston, North Carolina-Duke and more

We made it — the final viewers’ guide of the college basketball season. Conference tournaments are already underway and will ratchet up in earnest next week as the regular season concludes on Sunday. Fortunately, this last stretch has provided us some fun and impactful matchups as we dive into the most wonderful hoops month of the year.

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Let the madness begin! Your guide to the early conference tournaments

One last time, let’s power-rank the top-10 matchups between over the final five days of the regular season, starting with a few honorable mentions and counting down.

(All times ET)

Honorable Mention: No. 4 Tennessee at No. 17 South Carolina (Wednesday), Northwestern at Michigan State (Wednesday), Oklahoma at Texas (Saturday), Texas A&M at Ole Miss (Saturday), No. 11 Baylor at Texas Tech (Saturday), New Mexico at No. 22 Utah State (Saturday), No. 12 Illinois at Iowa (Sunday)

10. Memphis at Florida Atlantic, Saturday, Noon, CBS

USF ran away with the AAC regular-season title, but this game remains an important one in the NCAA Tournament conversation. FAU is squarely on the bubble, while Memphis — which beat the Owls at home last week — is lurking around the edges. The Tigers have more to gain from a win in this one, which would give them another Q1 victory and resume boost entering the conference tournament, but FAU can’t afford to drop games either. It should be a good game regardless, featuring AAC player of the year candidates David Jones from Memphis and Johnell Davis from FAU.

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Bubble Watch: The cut line comes into focus

9. Clemson at Wake Forest, Saturday, 6 p.m., ACC Network

The Demon Deacons are testing the pliability of the bubble after Tuesday night’s home loss to Georgia Tech. A win over Clemson to close out the regular season now feels like a must-win for the program with just one Quad 1 victory. Clemson is safely in the NCAA Tournament but also on the hunt for a top-four seed in the ACC tourney and a valuable two-day bye to the quarterfinals. Good big-man matchup in this one between Wake’s Efton Reid and Clemson’s P.J. Hall.

I trust that all of you have been reveling in Mountain West After Dark — I gladly traded a sufficient night’s sleep to witness this halfcourt buzzer-beater last week. If not, this is a good one to start with. The Aztecs, who made it all the way to the national title game last year, host a Boise State squad that is heading back to the NCAA Tournament for a second straight season. Both teams will be looking to rebound from Tuesday losses: SDSU fell to a surging UNLV, and Boise State dropped one at home to Nevada.

7. Villanova at Seton Hall, Wednesday, 6:30 p.m., FS1

A massive game for the Bubble Watch community. Both of these teams are in that Big East group currently flirting with the “last four in” and “first four out,” and a win would help to nudge either team to the right side of the at-large cut line. A loss isn’t disqualifying to either’s tournament chances,…